dragCounracing ! k c u d d n a e v fi t to
Jayne Kay
drag racing Count to five and duck
The properties of titanium allow the design of a lighter spring with added travel and more resistance to set. Titanium valve springs are lighter than steel springs. This reduced mass and inertia increases the natural frequency of the spring. A higher natural frequency has better dynamic response at the high RPM’s of today’s performance motors. Titanium springs are not “forever”, Titanium does not exhibit the same “infinite life” characteristic that carbon steel provide at low stress numbers.
However for high performance-limited life applications such as racing, where the springs are replaced regularly titanium simply can’t be beat. The titanium valve springs are also a better value. Although they cost more than the steel valve springs they will last 5 to 7 times longer. The steel springs will begin to take set during the burnout. Whereas the RCS titanium springs will last between 10 and 20 runs. www.rentoncoilspring.com
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valve Spring
crankshaft A 180 degree crankshaft is also about 10 kg lighter than 90 degree crankshaft, but they create a lot of vibration. Such is the strength of a top fuel crankshaft that in one incident, the entire engine block was split open and blown off the car during an
engine failure, and the crank, with all eight connecting rods and pistons, was left still bolted to the clutch. The fatigue strength of crankshafts is usually increased by using a radius at the ends of each main and crankpin bearing. The radius itself reduces the stress in these critical areas, but since the radius in most cases are rolled, this also leaves some compressive residual stress in the surface, which prevents cracks from forming.
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In Top Fuel Drag racing Billet steel crankshafts are used; they all have a cross plane a.k.a. 90 degree configuration and run in five conventional bearing shells. 180 degree crankshafts have been tried and they can offer increased power, even though the exhaust is of open type.
Drive shafts are carriers of torque: they are subject to torsion and shear stress, equivalent to the difference between the input torque and the load. They must therefore be strong enough to bear the stress, whilst avoiding too much additional weight as that would in turn increase their inertia. To allow for variations in the alignment and distance between the driving and driven components, drive shafts frequently incorporate one or more universal joints, jaw couplings, or rag joints, and sometimes a splined joint or prismatic joint. Operating angles in a driveshaft are the angles between the pinion, driveshaft and transmission centerlines. www.musiccityrodshop.com
The optimal angle for any driveshaft to run at is 0 degrees, where many vibrational and frictional problems are nonexistent. In order to minimize power loss and vibration in an offset configuration, the pinion centerline and the transmission centerline need to be parallel. In general, the largest angle for racing applications should be 2 degrees and the centerlines should be parallel within 1/2 degree. If the centerlines are off too far, the u-joints travel at different speeds causing vibration (this is the same problem induced by poorly phased end yokes). This vibration is hard to distinguish from an unbalanced driveshaft.
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drive shaft
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Over the last 36 years, the success of the Bill Miller Engineering Forged Aluminium Connecting Rod in drag racing is unparalleled. The BME Rod is unquestionably the number one choice of professional drag racers.
In a reciprocating piston engine, the connecting rod or conrod connects the piston to the crank or crankshaft. Together with the crank, they form a simple mechanism that converts reciprocating motion into rotating motion. Connecting rods may also convert rotating motion into reciprocating motion. Historically, before the development of engines, they were first used in this way.
Aluminium Rods are CNC machined out of their proprietary aluminium alloys developed exclusively for R&R. The Pro-series alloy has up to 24% increased tensile and yield strength over competitors rod alloys. All alloys are cold extruded under 2,000+ tons of pressure to ensure consistent grain flow and density. This yields the strongest and lightest rod possible with an exceptional fatigue life www.rehermorrison.com and reduced elongation. All connecting rods come standard with ARP rod bolts. R&R Aluminium rods are available for most any import or domestic applications by providing a fully custom rod at little or no cost above that of an “off-the-shelf� product. www.rrconnectingrods.com
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con rod
blower belt Manufactured by Denver-based Gates Corp, the toothed belt drives the supercharger (blower) on engines that produce an estimated 8,000 hp is an application that pushes belt technology to the extremes. Punching the throttle accelerates the engine crankshaft from idle to more than 9,000 rpm. When the driver eases up, the engine slows to as little as 2,000 rpm. But while rpm quickly drops, the blower’s inertial load wants to maintain speed. Sudden acceleration and deceleration instantly changes tension and speed and can quickly destroy a belt. Gates Poly Chain GT belts are built tough and they are unsurpassed in transmitting positive power over a wide range of loads, while withstanding power surges and shock loading.
www.gates.com www.machinedesign.com
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Except for a difference in pitch size, the same Poly Chain GT2 belt that powers dragsters at speeds exceeding 330 mph is widely found on HVAC units, conveyors, and food and beverage handling drives.
www.precisionenginetech.com
bearing The reason why con rods with bearing coatings directly applied are unlikely to be seen widely in motor racing in the near future is one of economics. The accuracy required for the manufacture of the con rod bore would be increased, and the mechanical masking necessary to prevent coating being applied to areas other than the bearing bore would be expensive to produce and use. The very obvious sticking point is that when the bearing wears or shows signs of distress, the rod may well be scrap, or at least require serious re-work. To run engines with bearing coatings directly applied to the big-end bore would require a large increase in the inventory of con rods held by racing companies. www.performancebearing.com www.atspeedracing.co.uk
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Bearing crush is critical to holding the bearing in place. With the cap installed, this exerts radial pressure, forcing the bearing backs outward radially. When big bucks and series championships are on the line, every nuance is considered. Bearings are no exception.
This is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air mixture by an electric spark, while containing combustion pressure within the engine. A spark plug has a metal threaded shell, electrically isolated from a central electrode by a porcelain insulator. The central electrode, which may contain a resistor, is connected by a heavily insulated wire to the output terminal of an ignition coil or magneto. The spark plug’s metal shell is screwed into the engine’s cylinder head and thus electrically grounded. The central electrode protrudes through the porcelain insulator into the combustion chamber, forming one or more spark gaps between the inner end of the central electrode and usually one or more protuberances or structures attached to the inner end of the threaded shell and designated the side, earth, or ground electrodes.
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spark plug
piston The pistons are used to transfer the chemical energy contained in the fuel to mechanical energy that can be used by an automobile. The following will list all the parts of a piston system and explain how they work together. 18 Count to 5 and Duck!
Pistons are made of forged aluminium. The piston is anodized and Teflon coated to prevent galling during high temperature operation. The top ring is an L-shaped Dykes ring that provides a good seal during combustion but a second ring must be used to prevent oil from entering the combustion chamber during intake strokes as the Dykes-style ring offers less than optimal combustion gas sealing. The connecting rods are of forged aluminium and do provide some shock damping, which is why aluminium is used in place of titanium, because titanium connecting rods transmit too much of the combustion impulse to the big-end rod bearings,[citation needed] endangering the bearings and thus the crankshaft and block. Each con rod has two bolts, shell bearings for the big end while the pin runs directly in the rod.
A hydraulic valve lifter, also known as a hydraulic tappet or a hydraulic lash adjuster, is a device for maintaining zero valve clearance in an internal combustion engine. Conventional solid valve lifters required regular adjusting to maintain a small clearance between the valve and its rocker or cam follower. This space allowed for thermal expansion, and prevented the parts from binding. This clearance space meant noisy operation and earlier wear, as the parts would rattle against one another until the parts heated up and expanded.
The hydraulic lifter was designed to compensate for this tolerance, allowing the valve train to operate with zero clearance--leading to quieter operation, longer engine life, and eliminating the need for periodic adjustment of valve clearance. The hydraulic lifter, situated between the camshaft and each engine’s valve, is a hollow steel cylinder encasing an internal piston. This piston is held at the outer limit of its travel with a strong spring. www.waterdecontamination.com
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valve lifter
A rocker arm (in the context of an internal combustion engine of automotive, marine, motorcycle and reciprocating aviation types) is an oscillating lever that conveys radial movement from the cam lobe into linear movement at the poppet valve to open it. One end is raised and lowered by a rotating lobe of the camshaft (either directly or via a tappet (lifter) and pushrod) while the other end acts on the valve stem. When the camshaft lobe raises the outside of the arm, the inside presses down on the valve stem, opening the valve. When the outside of the arm is permitted to return due to the camshafts rotation, the inside rises, allowing the valve spring to close the valve. www.performancetrends.com www.rodauthority.com
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rocker arm
Jayne Kay
Jayne Kay www.jaynekay.com | www.behance.net/Jayne-Kay